DUMONTEIL is pleased to present The Far Side, the first solo exhibition of French artist Hugo DEVERCHÈRE in China. Featuring a series of photography using a variety of techniques, as well as crystallization processes and neon installations, "The Far Side" is a research project focused on the imaginations of space exploration and the fantasies generated by the discovery of new celestial bodies.

Initiated in 2019, the origin of "The Far Side" coincides with China's Chang'e 4 probe landing on the moon's far side. For the first time, through this rover, humans could observe and study this region from its surface - a territory both close and distant, almost palpable, yet constantly escaping our gaze from Earth. Drawing on recent developments in the sciences related to space exploration, Hugo Deverchère scouted terrestrial territories whose geological and chemical aspects present strong similarities with other planets: analogous landscapes. Thus, exobiologists and astrobiologists teach us that the study of extra-planetary worlds first requires the exploration and rediscovery of our own environment.

Between the United States, Italy, Chile, Spain, and China, "The Far Side" investigates these landscapes' multiple physical and symbolic dimensions. Their appearance evokes both what the Earth must have looked like during its chaotic birth and the vision of its destruction and post-human future. They represent the uchronic fantasy of a cosmic elsewhere and embody past, present, and future projections.